The old story of agitations, shutdowns, stone peltings, firings and killings is again being repeated in Kashmir. The Valley is once again on fire with innocent human lives as its fuel.
Last month your Editor had been in Kashmir for full seven days and could interact with different sections of society. The fake encounter of three innocent youth in Mizhil sector near LoC had already taken place which led to angry agitations in Srinagar and other places. It has ignited the sad memories of May 2009 Shopian tragedy in which two young women were raped and murdered. Unfortunately the culprits have not yet been punished. The Government knows, and more than that the people know what the culprits are. Common man in Kashmir is frustrated, distraught and terrorised. There has been such a long history of betrayal of common man, neglect of common causes and abuse of human rights there that the people have become completely alienated with the State and Central governments.
Stories of arbitrary arrests, misuse of law, illegal detentions, inhuman tortures, fake encounters and merciless killings are on every tongue. You come across countless widows, half widows, orphans and tortured individuals everywhere with their blood curdling stories. There is a complaint on every lip and a wound in every heart. One intellectual wryly commented that ‘ours is the most tragic story of suppression under 167 years of Mughal rule, 66 years of Afghan rule, 72 years of Sikh rule and 99 years of Dogra rule and our suffering continues’.
In a school function largely attended by youth I pleaded for efforts to restore peace and start reconstruction process. I said stone pelting would not solve the problems; therefore constructive approach should be adopted. It prompted angry reaction from the audience which manifested itself in 40 minutes of loaded questions and objections. The elderly professor who was presiding over the function had to interfere and mollify the agitated youth by saying that their marginalisation and repression has so much frustrated the youth that they do not see any ray of hope at the end of the dark tunnel and that they have been pushed to the wall in such a fashion that there is no other way than pelting stones.
The ruling class and the rich in Kashmir are enjoying the fruits of continued patronage at the cost of the sufferings of common people. They are not at all concerned with the material and moral needs of the people. They are a despised lot who are not expected to help in improving the situation.
The Indian civil society, intellectuals, social scientists and well wishers of the country who want to see a strong and united society must interfere and take urgent and concrete steps to heal the wounded hearts of the Kashmiris otherwise Kashmir would remain a thorn in our flesh and an ever burning hell.